Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are seeking upwards of millions of pages of classified documents pertaining to the January 6th, 2021 riots at the Capitol, a move that could delay the federal trial against him by months — even past next year’s election.
Judge Tanya Chutkan must now consider a motion by the president’s legal team to grant them access to classified documents containing information on everything from his presidential schedule to election tabulation data to the presence of any undercover officers during the riots. A similar motion was granted in Trump’s separate federal case alleging he improperly took and stored classified documents after leaving the White House.
In their filing, defense attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro state the 57 groups of documents including “all documents regarding informants, cooperators, undercover agents, representatives, or anyone acting in a similar capacity” who were “at or within 5 miles of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Their request also includes “all documents relating to investigations relating to fraud, interference (including but not limited to foreign interference), or irregularities during the 2020 election, “including “the election security and integrity risks arising from the cyberattack and data breach relating to SolarWinds, Microsoft, and VMWare in or about 2020” and details of “Dominion Voting Systems and its voting-system products.”
The Trump team also wants “all documents relating to President Trump’s daily schedule for the period from October 1, 2020, through January 20, 2021, including scheduling materials, itineraries, and summaries of President Trump’s activities, including all ‘daily diary’ documents.”
On the election itself, they are seeking “all audits of election results, vote tabulation, vote submission, or related election activities performed by state governments named in the Indictment.”
Prosecutors, who have charged President Trump with interfering with the results of the 2020 election, argue the latest defense motion is another attempt to push the start of the trial past the November 2024 elections. Should he become president again, Trump could petition the Supreme Court to dismiss the case, arguing it interferes with his presidential schedule, according to Newsweek.
Such a move would be one of “a host of potential strategies available” to Trump as president, according to Paul Golden, a partner at the Coffey Modica law firm in New York City.
Trump’s attorneys, meanwhile, believe that foreign actors may have posed a greater risk to the outcome of the 2020 election and are seeking information about “broad Russian and Iranian campaigns” to undermine confidence in America’s electoral infrastructure. In addition, the are seeking documents containing evidence that Venezuela, Cuba, and China “owned, directed, or controlled election infrastructure used in the 2020 federal elections.”
Both cases brought by Biden Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith are sprawling in nature and are costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars as the prosecutor, infamous for “political hit jobs,” attempts to link President Trump to violence committed on J6. Smith has already lost a number of motions, including an attempt to have Trump jailed.
Most recently, President Trump was hit with a gag order preventing him from freely speaking about the trial.
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